High-Resolution Correlation in Apparently Monotonous Rocks: Upper Ordovician Kope Formation, Cincinnati Arch

Palaios ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. M. HOLLAND ◽  
D. L. MEYER ◽  
A. I. MILLER
2002 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph F. Pachut ◽  
Margaret M. Fisherkeller

Populations of the Upper Ordovician trepostome bryozoan Batostoma jamesi were collected from two different paleoenvironmental settings in the Kope Formation of southeastern Indiana. Within each colony and population, morphologic changes were analyzed during colony growth, or astogeny. Morphological measurements of zooecia, mesozooecia, and acanthostyles display similar patterns of change during colony growth in both populations but magnitudes are generally larger in the high diversity population.Canonical variates analyses provided multivariate confirmation of univariate character differences found within each population. Statistically significant multivariate morphological differences between growth stages persist even if assignments of colonies to populations are ignored. Results suggest different potentials for altering growth trajectories in different environments with early growth stage flexibility in colonies from lower diversity settings and later-stage flexibility in colonies from higher diversity settings.Heterochronic changes occur between species populations. Relative to the high-diversity population, the low-diversity population displays the following: 1) progenesis and hypermorphosis for zooecia, reflecting the ability to exist over a broader range of areal densities and surface areas than in populations from high-diversity associations; 2) postdisplacement and progenesis for mesozooecia, producing mature mesozooecial densities earlier in growth and at smaller sizes while the onset of mesozooecial development is delayed; and 3) acceleration, predisplacement, and progenesis for acanthostyles, resulting in a more rapid rate of development, an earlier onset of style development and more styles, and an earlier time of maturation, respectively.The estimated level of morphological integration is higher in the high diversity population regardless of stage of colony growth. Within populations, integration is stronger during early growth stages in colonies from high diversity settings and during later growth stages in colonies from low diversity settings. Character heritabilities are high in both diversity-level populations, suggesting that these patterns of morphological integration were not the result of non-heritable phenotypic plasticity. Mean heritability is greater in the high diversity population and differs statistically only between the late growth stages of populations. Patterns of morphological integration may result from differing levels of stabilizing selection in different environments. Depending on the timing of selection, these different levels of integration are capable of affecting the outcome of selection on species populations.


2016 ◽  
Vol 53 (8) ◽  
pp. 823-835
Author(s):  
Nathan Marshall ◽  
Carlton E. Brett

The Upper Ordovician (mid-Katian) Kope Formation provides an example of how a detailed study of fine-grained siliciclastic sediment can provide sedimentological insights. The Kope Formation is an exemplar of mixed siliciclastic–carbonate cyclicity; however, most of the sedimentological research to date has focused on the fossiliferous limestone beds. Conversely, this paper provides a detailed investigation of siltstone within 42 metre-scale cycles from 26 locations spanning a large geographic area. The objective of the study is twofold: (i) to confirm the mineralogical nature of silt-sized sediment. Currently, silt-sized sediment is irregularly defined as being either carbonate or siliciclastic rich. This paper uses X-ray diffraction, thin-section, and elemental analyses to determine the mineralogy of the silt; (ii) to determine the stratigraphic distribution of siltstone beds. If a distinctive and reoccurring distribution of siltstone can be found, then it can provide additional information about environmental energy changes that led to cyclic fossiliferous limestone formation. This study finds that silt within the Kope Formation is siliciclastic and siltstone, therefore, records periodic minor pulses of coarser terrigenous sediment. Predominantly, metre-scale limestone–shale cycles show an increasing abundance of siltstone beds in the upper half of the shale interval, with a marked decrease just before the capping limestone. This finding supports the idea that limestone formation occurred during slowing sedimentation, perhaps at a time of maximum sea-level rise. Furthermore, decametre-scale fluctuations in siltstone abundance are similar in pattern to previously documented faunal variations, indicating that fauna assemblage might be more controlled by turbidity and not depth.


1992 ◽  
Vol 129 (6) ◽  
pp. 709-721 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry G. Fordham

AbstractThree available graphic-correlation analyses are used to calibrate mid-Palaeozoic conodont zonations: Sweet's scheme for the mid- to Upper Ordovician; Kleffner's for the mid- to Upper Silurian; and Murphy & Berry's for the lower and middle Lower Devonian. The scheme of Sweet is scaled by applying the high-precision U-Pb zircon date of Tucker and others for the Rocklandian and linked with that of Kleffner by scaling the graptolite sequence of the Ordovician-Silurian global stratotype section to fit two similarly derived dates from this sequence. The top of Kleffner's scheme, all of Murphy & Berry's, as well as standard zones to the Frasnian are calibrated by using tie-points of the latest Cambridge-BP time-scale (GTS 89). However, the recent microbeam zircon date by Claoué-Long and others for the Hasselbachtal Devonian-Carboniferous auxiliary stratotype is used to calibrate the standard Famennian zones. Also the similarly derived but preliminary determination reported by Roberts and others from the Isismurra Formation of New South Wales is tentatively taken as the top of the Tournaisian and so used to calibrate Tournaisian zones. Despite the considerable extrapolation required to compile these schemes and their inherent errors, the resultant time-scale closely agrees with other dates of Tucker and others from the Llanvirn as well as the GTS 89 Homerian-Gorstian tie-point. This suggests that stratigraphic methods can be usefully applied to geochronometry. The Llandovery appears to have lasted longer (16 m. y.) than usually envisaged and the Ordovician-Silurian boundary may need to be lowered to approximately 443.5 Ma. Certainly, chrons varied widely in duration and further stratigraphic studies to estimate their relative durations as well as high-resolution dating for their calibration will be crucial to more accurate biochronometries.


2007 ◽  
Vol 243 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 42-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brooks B. Ellwood ◽  
Carlton E. Brett ◽  
William D. MacDonald

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document